Over the years we've heard a lot of feedback from you about what you'd like to change about YouTube, and the size of our video player is always top of mind. That's why today we're excited to announce a bigger YouTube player.

We're expanding the width of the page to 960 pixels to better reflect the quality of the videos you create and the screens that you use to watch them. This new, wider player is in a widescreen aspect ratio which we hope will provide you with a cleaner, more powerful viewing experience. And don't worry, your 4:3 aspect ratio videos will play just fine in this new player.

As always, we welcome your feedback and encourage you to share your thoughts with us on this exciting, new change happening for all videos on YouTube.

I agree with the comments that the 4:3 videos should still have the player 4:3, the black on the sides isn't appealing. but I imagine that would require the db having the videos aspect ratio recorded, if it's not already.

Also, who do we contact to switch moderators on Groups? I tried discussing it in the forum, but none of the staff answered (only one person gave a suggestion, but also didn't know how to get a clear hold of YT staff)

Also, who do we contact to switch moderators on Groups? I tried discussing it in the forum, but none of the staff answered (only one person gave a suggestion, but also didn't know how to get a clear hold of YT staff)

Sorry, I don't like it. I like the original size better, and the new size is too big and looks really terrible in my opinion. It take up too much space on the page. Please bring back the old player or give an option to use it.

I would like to commend youtube for keeping up with the times, and increasing their standards in video quality. I would like to point out, however, that the majority of youtube videos are in 4:3 SD format, and by implementing this change, only a small minority of videos can truly take advantage of the full space that his new video player provides. Many other youtube users have requested that an option be made available, so that they can best cater their video to fit the desires of their viewers. This would appease both 4:3 and 16:9 video uploads, as well as maintaining youtube's desire for high quality videos.theodore864

I'm not a big fan of this. Mainly because 99% of my videos are 16:9, and yet are still letterboxing. What would be great is if we got to choose more options in the upload process. Like wheather or not we wanted that video to play in the widescreen player, or if we wanted the video to automatically crop or zoom into the full player (like on the iPhone/iPod touch,) etc.

Another thing is that the YouTube pages look really awkward. If anything, make the modules on the right of the page a little wider. It looks very weird with the left really wide and the right very narrow. Also, with the new page style, try applying it to every page. It's not consise and is kind of strange.

I've been using 1024x768 forever and it looks really awkward and scrunched on my screen. I think a lot of people would like at least an option to choose how to play them or something, but you guys force a lot of these things on anyway so. :V

Also, the Youtube engine should be smart enough to judge whether or not to use the 16:9 format. Why use 16:9 when you're just going to have a lot of extra dead space on either side? There should also be a toggle button so the user can flip between the views, which would be useful for letterboxed movies.

Please make it an option? A lot of videos look absolutely terrible now that the screen is humongous, and I want to be able to see the way people intended their video to look. I'd like my videos to be presented in the best possible way, and while this is a great idea, it just doesn't look very good. :( Nice idea, it just still needs a few tweaks.

Most users on YouTube can't shoot in widescreen, and 99% of videos on here are already in 4:3. I'm all for high quality videos, and I'm sure that people who can shoot in HD will benefit, but for the majority the change just makes the video, and the page layout, look terrible. It has to be optional.

Very nicely done. Happy to see that YouTube has joined the rest of the world with the 16:9 format. Also very nice that you arent stretching 4:3 videos and pillarboxing them instead. Bravo and thank you!

Can we please have the option to have it either size? The 4:3 videos look horrid in that player and the black border just intensifies that. The page layout is just akward now, with the description squashed to the side. So, I'm rooting for a change back to the 4:3 format.

I don't usually post on this blog, but I have to say I love this. I can understand harsh reception, everything radically new introduced in this world usually goes through the same thing. This looks like it goes to 2.4:1 widescreen right? Ah, whatever, it's great.

I never post on YT blogs, but seriously I think this is the worst change done to YouTube, considering most user videos were in the original 4:3 aspect ratio maybe (as plenty of others before me have said) this should be made optional?

I never post on YT blogs, but seriously I think this is the worst change done to YouTube, considering most user videos were in the original 4:3 aspect ratio maybe (as plenty of others before me have said) this should be made optional?

I like the idea of a Widescreen player, but I think this one is just a bit too big. Also, I uploaded some videos in 16:9 ratio a while back, but they appear to have been converted to 4:3. And then there some videos that I filmed in 16:9 that I converted to 4:3 myself, because it wasn't 'supported' back then. This results in those videos having a huge black border completely around them.

I do love the new aspect ratio because it works for film makers and directors who want to put higher res films up, however I mostly do vlogs and for vloggers like myself and others it is just a little bit of an annoyance of black space. I think it would be a great idea to make it an optional feature that can be turned on or off when the video is uploaded.

I see no difference in the quality from this new player. It's pretty stupid actually. I think that this should have been an option or a TestTube thing rather than an overall change. It seems that youtube no longer tests these new features or changes out anymore. Here is an idea that would make youtube better though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGgzM0_SL9E

This was totally unecessary and just makes 99% of videos look tiny in the new player. It needs to be optional, because 4:3 videos just aren't the same with hugw black bars on the side, and they're practically unwatchable in full-screen mode.

I think the wide screen makes the videos look bad.Many have put a lot of effort into editing our videos to fill the screen now that has been lost.It just looks bad and the videos look misshaped A waste of space.Please could it be optional?

I like the change. Some people will just have to suck it up and deal with it. If we constantly hold back features because of breakage (which, by the way, doesn't complete screw up videos) then nothing new will ever be implemented.

I see no difference in the quality from this new player. It's pretty stupid actually. I think that this should have been an option or a TestTube thing rather than an overall change. It seems that youtube no longer tests these new features or changes out anymore. Here is an idea that would make youtube better though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGgzM0_SL9E

I don't like it. Most videos don't fit the size and the black area's are very distracting. It also makes the screen look distorted. It was perfectly fine the way it was. I would prefer it gone, however and opinon between the two sizes would work fine as well.

Because no current video on the site can actually take advantage of this feature due to how you encode it,(although I'm sure you've changed this for future uploads) this feature should be an option to the user and the uploader to customize.

I'd like it more if you let people, or at least partners, re-upload old videos using 16:9. We recorded in 16:9 but letterboxed them to fit in 4:3. Now it'd be nice to be able to change the videos without losing all the comments and ratings.

I'd like it more if you let people, or at least partners, re-upload old videos using 16:9. We recorded in 16:9 but letterboxed them to fit in 4:3. Now it'd be nice to be able to change the videos without losing all the comments and ratings.

The quality of 4:3 videos have reduced slightly, and when I watch in HQ the framerate gets choppy. I have videos thet are 16:9 on my channel and still dont come close to filling the box! I think the idea of making it optional is a good one.

The quality of 4:3 videos have reduced slightly, and when I watch in HQ the framerate gets choppy. I have videos thet are 16:9 on my channel and still dont come close to filling the box! I think the idea of making it optional is a good one.

The quality really isn't visibly better, and the black boxes on either side of 4:3 videos are distracting and unnecessary. The new player really ought to be an option for uploaders and/or viewers, if you must have it at all. There are still plenty of unfixed problems waiting.

Wow.. It looks like the best recommended video resolution by youtube isn't quite such a good idea anymore! Too bad I actually listened.. Because now I get the privelege of looking at 2 bars on each side! Its not like I have very good luck with yt anyways. Im Sorry but his made it even worse for me. At Least make it optional so we can have our normal sizes back for now please. Thanks!

I don't like it. I was on digg and clicked on a link to a Michael Jordan video, I restarted firefox a few times and opened youtube in another browser to see what was up. Not everyone in the world has a wide screen monitor. Some of us still have old monitors with low resolutions. Now the whole small video takes up half the screen. I don't even have the option of not watching the video full screen. If I want to see the video I now must make it full screen to view. I know this isn't that big of a deal but it is sorta crappy that I now must do that to see the video.

Awhile back youtube made some changes to their embedded player, I came to the blog and saw all the negative comments and they fixed the problem the next day. Youtube seems to listen to it's users so I'm hoping this new video player won't last long on the site. And if it does stay hopefully they'll do something to make it so people without widescreen monitors can watch the video without having to make it fullscreen.

This is really terrible. :\ It's distracting, makes the page look terrible, and is just a general annoyance. 4:3 videos now look like total crap, High Quality or otherwise, esspecially when being viewed in Full Screen mode.

The old video player would be nice; but options between the two might be better.

Thanks for the effort, YouTube.Perhaps there is a way to make the width of the video window adjust automatically to the aspect ratio of the video that's being played?... ALSO: It might be a good idea if the "text comments" scrolled like the "Related Videos" & "More From .." on the right column. That way, it would be possible to have the main video window REMAIN VISIBLE WHILE SCROLLING DOWN THROUGH THE COMMENTS.

Well I am not really liking it though it will have some uses. Some people will like it, others won't. Is there a possible way to maybe Make it so we can change the size back to normal or go wide screen? I think it will please everyone since this way, people can watch it wide screen or normal. I appreciate the look though.

1. have the player change dynamicaly to the aspect ratio. 2. option to take out the comment section for all the videos. 3. on mouse over, video images should be displayed. 4. download button for videos.

Seriously, change it back, YouTube. Either that, or alter it so that it doesn't affect videos that have already been uploaded specifically for 4:3 ratios. The giant black space is annoying, stretches the screen, cramps up the Description box, and looks ugly. While you're changing it back, you may as well fire the guy/gal who thought of this.

One of the best recommended video resolutions dont look so good anymore! Too bad I actually used the recommended size.. Because now I have to look at 2 bars on each side! This kinda made it worse for me. At Least make it optional so we can have our normal sizes back for now please. Thanks!

It needs major tweaking.Overall, it's a good idea, but it just, visually, isn't great.All of the videos in 4:3 need to be automatically resized. The huuuuge black box around it is really distracting. And the quality looks worse because of the non-pixely border.

I do, however, enjoy how newer videos look. I just think that the overall visual aspect leaves much to be desired.

I think the wide screen makes the videos look bad.Many have put a lot of effort into editing our videos to fill the screen now that has been lost.It just looks bad and the videos look misshaped A waste of space.Please could it be optional?

When I clicked on another video, and saw the huge screen, I thought, ''Crap, is my Firefox messing up again?'' Then I posted a thread on a forum and they said it was official, and linked me here.But it needs to be tweaked some, but I guess it's pretty cool.

I love, love, love it. HD and widescreen, you guys should have done this a long time ago. However, I realize why you couldn't. Bandwidth issues and all that. If you guys start putting up HD shows from major networks, I would see no reason to go anywhere else for my video needs.

This really messes up the videos that most users have already uploaded. I thought something was wrong with my browser at first... so I think you guys should make it optional or get rid of it. It really makes our vids look awful.

I think this is a great feature don't get me wrong but PLEASE but back the 4:3option. This means I have to redo all videos uploaded for a band as I fought to even make them high quality. Plus what do you do when a video isn't in widescreen and it was done in fullscreen??? There needs to be a choice here for each channel. There are black bars on either side and I don't like that part of it. I think the general population has spoken about this.